Frozen civil service pensio

A question about : Frozen civil service pensio

Evening,

I am 52 and have a frozen defined benefit final salary pension from when I left the Civil Service in 2012. Am I right in thinking I can access the benefits from age 55 subject to a reduction in lump sum and monthly pension?

Thanks

Rob

Best answers:

• Did you leave under VERS? Which pension scheme were you in?
• I resigned. I was in Classic.
  Thanks
• info on the various Civil service schemes is available here
  https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/
  the earliest possible retirement age for classic is 50 if you joined before !st April 2006, or 55 if you joined later.
• I was in Classic Plus and left under VERS and I'm not sure if there is the same arrangement under the Classic scheme. As I no longer work for the Civil Service I could have claimed my pension from 50 but with a massive reduction. There was information in my leavers pack about when you can claim your pension; did you get a similar letter re your pension on leaving?
  If you want any information, you need to ring MyCSP, who has taken over from Capita and are now dealing with deferred pensions, but are struggling a bit with the admin. There's a post on here called 'I hate MyCSP', gives an indication of the problems!! The phone number of MyCSP is 0300 123 6666.
  For information purposes, for every year I take my pension before normal pension age (60 in my case, depends on when and which scheme) there is a 5 % reduction in pension and a 3 % reduction in the lump sum. There's other info I can give you if needed (as in how it is worked out etc) just let me know.
• Thanks for your advice everyone. I had seen reference to the 5% reduction but was unaware the lump sum reduction was 3%. I have asked CSP for a statement but they seem exceptionally slow at the moment...